


A Matter of Honor

by deandratb



Series: Tumblr Micro Requests [25]
Category: The Doctor Blake Mysteries
Genre: (minor but still), Blood and Injury, F/M, mild fisticuffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 22:04:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12944955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deandratb/pseuds/deandratb
Summary: Prompt fic; Matthew comes to Alice's defense, this time with his fists.Alice Harvey was the brightest, strangest woman he had ever met. She deserved better than she got.





	A Matter of Honor

**Author's Note:**

> For [by-surprise](by-surprise.tumblr.com). Prompt: **Matthew defending Alice’s honour**

Matthew threw the first punch, feeling the satisfying connection of his knuckles with the idiot’s jaw reverberate down his arm. The fact that it threw him off balance, making his entire body teeter dangerously on his cane, in no way lessened the satisfaction.

“So, you and the morgue doc?” Five seconds earlier, the sneer had dripped from the townie’s words. “Always thought the bitch was frigid, myself, but hey, good on you.”

He hadn't even thought about it--hadn't needed to. It was automatic. And maybe Matthew would've had the same reflex if he'd insinuated things about Jean, or his next door neighbor's wife, who always brought him cookies at Christmas...but it wasn't a friend or an honorary sister who'd been insulted to his face. 

It was Alice.

So he swung.

The bloke went down, hard, bleeding lip to the dirt. Lawson was grateful that he managed to recover his balance, making it easier to look down at the man he'd clocked--who was only stunned a few moments before he jumped up and tackled Matthew with a shout.

Unwittingly, laying Matthew flat out on his back was doing him a favor: without needing to compensate for his weak knee, he had no trouble blocking most of the jabs that came his way, and landing a few more. If he wasn't mistaken, his attacker would be leaving with a broken nose to remember him by.

Of course, getting off without a scratch would have required better luck than he had. One sneaky punch got him just under his ear, setting off an irritating ring that lingered long past the racing crowd breaking them apart and his counterpart being hauled away to the station for assaulting an officer.

"Technically, I started it," he told Charlie, fingers gingerly probing the spot where the punch had landed.

"So...should I arrest you, too, then?" Charlie quirked an eyebrow, making Lawson chuckle.

"Don't think that's necessary. He was mouthing off." He jerked a shoulder behind him. "Ethan heard it, you can ask him. He stopped me from doing worse."

"Mouthing off," Charlie repeated skeptically. "And you had to hit him?"

"Guess so." He couldn't explain it, and hoped Charlie wouldn't ask further. Nobody else needed to know that his usually-ironclad control could be so easily demolished...or what was said. 

That was certainly the last thing Alice needed. 

He knew what she dealt with, working among so many inflated male egos. She put on a good show, a lifetime of walls carefully built and tended, but had let enough slip out to him in their months together that he could fill in the blanks.

It wasn't right.

Her only crime had been quiet ambition, and a general oddness of demeanor that cared little for public opinion. He agreed privately, just as he'd agreed sympathetically in response, that she was a good doctor. That she didn't deserve it. 

Alice had sniffled those words, just that way; repeated them like a mantra, drunk on fancy wine he'd picked up for them in Melbourne. She wouldn't tell him what'd happened that day, or with who, and it was probably for the best, he thought now as his hand started to swell.

He had kissed the corners of her mouth, up her cheekbones, lightly brushed his lips over her damp eyelids--all the while promising her she was right. Of course she didn't deserve it, whatever it was. If his darkest suspicions on that subject made him clench his fists til his knuckles ached...she didn't have to find out.

Alice Harvey was the brightest, strangest woman he had ever met. She deserved better than she got. 

She deserved the best.

Honestly, he'd defend her entitlement to someone much better than him, as well. His words to Lucien weren't much different from what he told himself, when they argued and Alice shut herself away in her flat and he set his pride aside to apologize, or accept hers, whichever came first. 

Because God knew why, but Alice had chosen him, surly and damaged and prone to self-righteousness as he was...and all he could do was offer her his best.

So in the dim light of the morning, after every long shift, he climbed into their bed, curling around her the way she liked, nuzzling her neck with 'good morning' and 'I love you.' And she arched back into him, every time, humming contentedly like he wasn't the only one finally coming home.

Of course, as today was his day off, and they planned to meet for lunch after the race, any chance of affection was dashed when she got one look at his face and leapt to her feet. "Matthew Lawson, what on earth happened?"

He flinched. "It's nothing. Looks worse than it is, sweetheart." Making his way to their table, he sat, resigned to her seeking fingers as she crouched down to examine his face.

"It doesn't look like nothing," she countered, warming his face with her breath. Finally, she stopped poking at him, leaning back with a sigh. 

"You'll live," Alice declared, kissing his temple before returning to her seat.

"Oh, good. For a minute there, I was worried."

"Now--who's the doctor here?"

He smirked. "You. But who sees all the dead bodies first?"

"You." Her furrowed brow belied her concern. "So, what did happen?"

He tapped his foot, a subtle gesture of nerves that he could get away with around most people. Alice never missed a beat.

"Who did you hit?"

"Just some moron at the races."

"Some moron?" Alice tilted her head, studying him. Matthew was a lot of things, but rash was rarely one of them. 

Almost anyone else would have scolded him; the fact that it didn’t even occur to her was one of the things he appreciated about Alice. Even when it came to his most questionable impulses, she presumed his motives were good, without hesitation. 

“Yeah.” He ran his hand along his jaw absently, trying to figure out how to explain without explaining.

“Did he get it worse?”

God, he loved her. 

Matthew grinned. “Damn right he did.”

Cutting right to the heart of it, Alice pinned him with her deep green eyes. “Did he deserve it?”

He nodded, relieved. “He did.”

“All right, then.” She leaned down and grabbed her purse. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“Home, of course. You need tending to.”

“I’m telling you, it’s fine.”

“It could get infected. Who’s the physician, again?”

He rolled his eyes. “You are. But I swear, it--”

She was already signaling the waiter. “Oh, be quiet. Even if it wasn’t inflamed and paining you--which it is, don’t lie to me--do you really think I want to eat lunch while you’re bleeding across from me?”

He laughed. “Not terribly appetizing?”

“Not much, no. So let’s go get you cleaned up, love. We can make our own lunch.”

“Not nearly as romantic,” Matthew pointed out as they left.

“It could be. You could cook for me.”

“I make a mean sandwich,” he pointed out, taking her hand with his free one.

“I know you do.”

He ignored the fact that she was obviously patronizing him. “Could light some candles, put on some music...”

Alice hummed approvingly. “Sounds lovely.”

“After you tend to me, we could tend to each other.”

She stopped Matthew where they stood, turning into him for a long, simmering kiss. “Sounds even better.”

Alice waited until they were walking again, his hand relaxed in hers, shoulders less tense than before. 

“It was about me, wasn’t it.”

Not really a question. No one had ever known him as well as Alice.

“Yeah.” 

He didn’t have to ask her not to press the matter further. She knew he’d avoided telling her for his own reasons; and after all this time, she had a pretty good idea what they were.

“Matthew?”

“Yes?”

“What do you think of getting married?”

“As a general idea, or...”

“To me, specifically.”

He kept walking, her hand in his, but he gripped it a little tighter. “I would have to say that I’m in favor--though I thought I would be the one doing the asking.”

“I wasn’t asking,” she reassured him. “Just curious.”

Alice was curious about more things in one day than he’d been in his entire life. 

“Well, then. I’m for it.”

She smiled to herself as they made their way home. “Me too. Just for the record.”

Matthew kissed her hand. 

“Noted.”


End file.
